Tag: UFC 237

After a lengthy spell on the sidelines, UFC women’s strawweight champion “Thug” Rose Namajunas will return to the Octagon for her second title defence. She will meet surging contender Jéssica Andrade at UFC 237 in Brazil on May 11th.

The Trevor Wittman protege, Namajunas is still nursing a neck injury, keeping her inactive since her rematch with Polish striker Joanna Jędrzejczyk back in April at UFC 223. She faces a stern welcoming party in the form of Andrade who looks to make good on her second siege of the 115lbs gold.

Finding huge success since relocating to Colorado, the well rounded Namajunas achieved her life long goal of becoming world champion and has established a considerable fan base off the back of her two wins over Joanna in the process. Namajunas showed her finishing ability with a devastating first-round finish, while the second bout displayed Rose’s grit and determination to iron out a unanimous decision victory.

The Elevation Fight Team product is more than equipped on the feet and even more so when her grappling is called into practice, but her stopping power when compared to Andrade is vastly different.

Up until Jéssica Andrade’s title eliminator with fellow former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz, we had never truly seen an earth shattering stoppage at strawweight. In the premier round, Andrade landed a massive right hand and slept Karolina in brutal fashion.

She once more grabbed the number one contender spot by adding wins over Tecia Torres and compatriot Cláudia Gadelha to her trail of destruction.

With incredibly heavy hands for her weight and an aggressive approach to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Andrade has posed somewhat of an unsolvable puzzle for those at 115lbs with only the previously mentioned Joanna Jędrzejczyk blemishing her record there since her drop from her previous bantamweight home.

This has all of the makings of a great fight where it will see the technique and creativity of Namajunas pitted against power and aggression of Andrade.